A cooking space such as a kitchen includes a hood for discharging fumes and heat caused by cooking to the outside.
Generally, the hood installed at an upper side of a cooking device may suction smoke and fumes generated by cooking. As the smoke and fumes spread upward, the hood region may need to be enlarged in proportion to the increasing hood height from the cooking device.
However, air pollutants (hereinafter referred to as hazardous air) such as fine dust, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide (CO), volatile organic compounds, etc. are generated in a cooking process of cooking materials such as cooking oil at a level exceeding a reference value regardless of the cooking device, and concentration of ultra-fine dust generated in most cooking processes is more than 25 times a reference concentration of ultra-fine dust.
Because of the environment of such cooking spaces such as a kitchen, many researchers have asserted that nonsmoking women suffer from higher rates of lung cancer due to hazardous air generated from the kitchen.
When a user opens a window and operates the hood to let fresh air in, a large amount of hazardous air is discharged outside. However, due to structural characteristics of the hood installed at the upper side of the cooking device, hazardous air and fine dust generated in the cooking of food may move upward toward the hood, and at the same time, hazardous air can move toward the respiratory organs of the user who cooks the food, such that the user inhales the hazardous air.
In addition, the user is unable to recognize a pollution level of the air generated by cooking. Some users who do not like listening to loud noise generated from the hood often prefer to cook food without operating the hood.